592 



Ex. Doc. No. 41. 



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followed (lowri the Gila through the canon for four miles," crossing 

 the river repeatedly; the high water mark was frequently above 

 our heads on the rocks. There was very little grass in the caiion^ 

 ^ little cane. The. road left the Gila on the left bank, and led up 

 a dry ravine east of south for five miles further, it then brought us 

 iis by the Saddle mountain, in sight of the San Pedro; course 

 northwest. We then marched on and encamped on the left bank, 

 about one mile above its mouth, on the border of the low hills, 

 where we found plenty of grass; four miles further, the rocks on 

 th^ Gila were diluvial as we started, thence blue, grey, and various 

 colored basalt; in one place coarse amygdaloid, all with an apparent 

 vertical seam; the rocks generally very compact, with many cracks 

 and rugged surface; a few^ of them soft and pulverized. On the 

 hill four miles from the San Pedro was a bed of greyish white limer 

 stone, then commenced the diluvlon again. On the top of th^s 

 ridge stood the Saddle mountain, capped with some rock — probably 

 the limestone — but it may be the basalt.- The bottom of the Sail 

 Pedro is one mile broad, and of the character of those on the Gila ' 

 above, dusty dry soil, grown in places with cotton-woods and>il- 

 low, in others with grass, and again mesquite, chapparal, other 

 places bare. It bears the usual signs of habitations of former' 

 times^abundance of fragments of pottery; I also found the frag- 

 ment^ of a cerulian sea-shell. The vegetation of to-day was the 



I 



*4 



same, much as yesterday; saw some deer, abundance of quail, s^ome 



ducks, and a pole-cat, and a number of geese and grey Tabbits. like 

 those of the United States, but apparently small, and the 

 greythare, with black tail and ears. 



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Jfo 



6.— Remained in camp, awaiting the arrival of the 



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d 



^owitzers; obtained some seed of the pitahaya, which were contain 

 >B a dried fruit pod two inches large; the hills of diluvion are cut 

 into an infinite number .of hollows, on them the cactus and the va- 

 rious kinds of acacia grow in a scattered way, coverfng one-tenth, 

 perhaps, of the surface, the rest is bare gravel, except one-tenth 

 more; which is taken up with the scattered bunches of grama grass; 

 under the base of these hills the mesquite grows thick for a hun- 

 dred yards, some of it being trees of two feet in diameter, but low 

 altitude. Then comes the bottom of the river 



the bottoms of the Del Norte; 



comes the willows a few yards, which stand thick along the 



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coarse grass, which abounds oa 

 thea 



covered w 



ith 



